Rugby's riches must not hurt England - Bath owner Bruce Craig

Bath owner Bruce Craig says rugby union in England must not follow the football model, regardless of how much money comes into the game.

Craig - who is also vice-chairman of Premiership Rugby - has been influential in securing clubs greater power to run their commercial affairs.

But he is adamant they must continue to provide a wealth of home-grown players to serve the national side.

"One of the fundamental things in English rugby today is to make sure we have a very strong England national team as well as a very strong club culture," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

The high number of foreign players in football's Premier League is perceived by some to have had a detrimental impact on the England team, who
failed to qualify from their group
at this summer's World Cup in Brazil, with young England-qualified players struggling to find first-team football at top sides.

Young English players like Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck have left Manchester United as more foreign players have joined

"A huge amount of international players are coming into English football and you have repercussions," Craig added. "Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal - they are all fabulous clubs, but they are almost international teams."

In the Aviva Premiership, clubs must average 15 England-qualified players - through birth, ancestry or residency - in their match-day squad of 23 in order to continue to receive payments from the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

That equates to 65% and the league average across the 2013-14 season was over 70%, the highest ever, while
Harlequins
- with more than 40 England-qualified players in their senior squad - fielded nearly 90%.

Harlequins had more than 40 England-qualified players in their squad in 2013-14

And Craig maintains this is the way to give the national team the best opportunity to be successful.

"The strong club structure is feeding into a very strong England team, and the only way to do that is to make sure there are a considerable number of English youngsters coming from school, through the academies and into the main competition," he continued.

"There are very positive signs for English rugby going into the World Cup year."

The same cannot be said of France, where an influx of foreign players to the Top 14 has left head coach Philippe Saint-Andre bemoaning the lack of depth at his disposal.

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre has complained of a lack of depth in the national squad

"They've done certain things very well, but those things have repercussions. They've brought in those foreign players, but the national team don't have enough players who are French qualified," Craig continued.

"They would like to emulate the England system. But we have things to learn from them in terms of commerciality and making sure the audience is increased."

With that in mind, Craig says he would be open to moving some live club rugby union matches to terrestrial television in the future, in order to increase exposure to the game.

Premiership Rugby currently has a lucrative broadcasting agreement with BT Sport, while Sky Sports and BT will share the rights for the new European Rugby Champions Cup.

But Craig believes rugby union may have to move into the terrestrial market for some live matches.

"I think it would be very good to have some free-to-air exposure of club rugby," he said. "But there's a fine balance between the money coming into the game and getting more interest in the game.

"I look at the number of spectators in France, which is far greater than in England. They have actually put European rugby on terrestrial television - two games a weekend - and that fostered an interest in the domestic game, which then drove the subscriptions. So over a period of time the numbers have grown. It's a longer-term game.

"It definitely needs to be looked at. You need that pay-per-view element from a commercial point of view. But from a national interest point of view, it would be great to see some of the big club games [on terrestrial television].

"Those games I'm sure would generate 2/3/4 million people. We don't get that at the moment."

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Comments

Bath have pulled most of their resources out of very young player development. Young playyers need time at Championship and Level 3 or 4 clubs before they have go into Prem 1st teams. It is a long and demanding season for young players.

@162 but he's not a Bath development. He is a young English talent but he's not an example of Bath developing a new young player. They seem happier to buy talent in, not as much as Sarries, but getting there.

There is a balance to be struck, and right now the English clubs are there, I'd just rather that clubs looked to their development squads first to solve issues, not to other clubs players

@160I'm not sure why everyone is getting on Sam Burgess' case. He is 25 and English...why does he suddenly not qualify as young and exciting talent. I am all for youth development but you cannot throw 18/19 year olds in and "hope" they survive over a whole season. OD is an excellent back up to SB if SB gets into the England squad and then next year or the year after OD becomes the 1st choice

@160 simple answer is he isn't, at best maybe some LV Cup games. Ditto for the emerging 2nd rows at Leicester. Brad Thorn is obviously not a long term solution. but a young English player could have had an extra season or two of experience. OK they can learn from Brad, but it's a balancing act.

At the moment the levels in English rugby are OK but football, & French rugby, is a warning to us.

The danger is that the success of Toulon encourages others to move down the same route. Bath have invested alot in Sam Burgess when we have the excellent prospect Ollie Devoto, but when is the latter going to get game time at centre (I think his best position) when we've sunk £1.5m into the former as well as having KE & JJ.

@151 That's not quite the case in rugby. Both Leicester and Harlequins have seen the benefits of a good youth development system. That said you do look at Saracens and Toulon and see the massive benefits of just buying talent. You're getting a known quantity and a finished product.

@151 You make good point, but in both Football and Rugby there is more loaning out of younger players. In Rugby this tends to be into the next division, hopefully that will allow the talent time to develop and step into 1st teams. This is why there is talk in football of 1st division B sides playing in the leagues. I'm not suggesting that for Rugby but healthy loan culture is to be encouraged.

There has been a significant improvement in the balance of English qualified players in the Premiership. The problems facing the French team were similar to those in England following the WC in 2003. England had a consistent squad which gave little development opportunities to bring on the next wave of players and professionalism saw other national players taking up key positions at club level..

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